What do the states mean?+
- Solid: well studied, and it works.
- Half-there: the science is still forming.
- A ghost: almost no real studies.
- Hollow: well studied, and it does not work.
- A cord: the pair itself has been tested together.
- Air: nobody has ever tested this pair.
The full scoring method: How we score
Magnesium benefits: where the science stands
For sleep: not settled yet.
Sleep is what most people take magnesium for, and the best studies disagree: one found it helps, two found no effect. As of August 2026, the verdicts on this page rest on evidence from 242 trials, drawn from the strongest research among the 4,000 papers on PubMed that mention magnesium. Every claim is checked below.
4,000 papers on PubMed · evidence from 242 trials
Claim by claim
- SleepThe science is still forming. The best studies disagree.
- Blood pressureWell studied, and it works. The biggest review covered 38 trials.
- Blood sugarWell studied, and it works. The biggest review covered 23 trials.
- CholesterolThe science is still forming. No real difference found so far.
See 4 more scored claims+
- HeartThe science is still forming. The best studies disagree.
- MoodThe science is still forming. The best studies disagree.
- Stress and anxietyThe science is still forming. The best studies disagree.
- Weight and body fatThe science is still forming. No real difference found so far.
Pairs people ask about
The 25 sources we read
- 2010Meta-analysis · pools 24 trials, 2,619 people · no clear effect on stress and anxietysource
- 2010Randomized trial · 100 people · no clear effect on sleepsource
- 2013Observational study · 532,979 people · small benefit for heartsource
- 2016Meta-analysis · no clear effect on blood sugarsource
- 2017Meta-analysis · pools 18 trials · benefit for stress and anxietysource
- 2017Meta-analysis · pools 14 trials · no clear effect on moodsource
- 2017Crossover trial · 126 people · large benefit for moodsource
- 2017Meta-analysis · no clear effect on cholesterolsource
- 2020Meta-analysis · no clear effect on heartsource
- 2020Randomized trial · 52 people · no clear effect on heartsource
- 2020Meta-analysis · pools 32 trials · benefit for moodsource
- 2021Meta-analysis · pools 3 trials, 151 people · moderate benefit for sleepsource
- 2021Randomized trial · 24 people · large benefit for blood pressuresource
- 2021Meta-analysis · pools 32 trials · no clear effect on weight and body fatsource
- 2022Randomized trial · no clear effect on stress and anxietysource
- 2022Randomized trial · 164 people · no clear effect on blood pressuresource
- 2023Meta-analysis · pools 9 trials, 7,582 people · no clear effect on sleepsource
- 2023Randomized trial · 148 people · no clear effect on heartsource
- 2024Randomized trial · 19 people · no clear effect on heartsource
- 2024Meta-analysis · pools 5 trials, 266 people · moderate benefit for blood sugarsource
- 2024Randomized trial · 40 people · moderate benefit for blood sugarsource
- 2024Randomized trial · 54 people · moderate benefit for blood pressuresource
- 2025Meta-analysis · pools 23 trials, 1,345 people · small benefit for blood sugarsource
- 2025Meta-analysis · pools 38 trials, 2,709 people · small benefit for blood pressuresource
- 2026Randomized trial · 40 people · large benefit for moodsource
Chosen as the strongest evidence out of 4,000 papers on PubMed. Every row links to its paper.
Fair questions
Does magnesium work?+
For sleep, it is not settled. The best studies disagree.
Is magnesium safe?+
No caution is recorded on this page. That is not a safety guarantee; the studies we read were not safety trials.
Why only 25 sources, when PubMed lists 4,000?+
The 4,000 is every paper that mentions magnesium in any way: animal studies, blood measurements, papers where it is a side note. The strongest sources are combined reviews, and each one already gathers every trial its authors could find. Our 25 cover 242 trials between them, and every one is linked above. Both counts are measured, not estimated.